This guy has a few points, but he makes a few mistakes, too, and thus I am required to point them out and discuss them.
And don’t get me started on Gimp. It’s a nice free toy for photo manipulation and editing graphics – but it’s about as comparable to Photoshop as is Microsoft Paint.
Actually, he’s spot on here. In addition to being more difficult to use, it has a bad name. But on to the parts where I disagree with him. First of all, he keeps talking about software “booting.” Software doesn’t “boot.” Software runs. And he’s wrong to say that software simply has to get to the “welcome screen” to count as “booting.” WineHQ ranks software on how well it runs with Wine — garbage to platinum. Second, another thing he’s wrong about as it comes to Wine: Software updates don’t always break until some random hobbyist figures out how to make them work. This betrays a complete and utter lack of understanding of how it works.
I’ve had the same “install” of Starcraft and Brood War across multiple versions of Wine, Ubuntu, and Starcraft itself. I’ve never had an update to Starcraft break Starcraft. Very rarely do minor updates break software in Wine — I’d say about as often as they break it for Windows.
Also, this, I have a huge raging problem with:
There’s also a good chance your copy of XP or Vista is OEM too, and that almost certainly won’t work in a virtualized environment (so you’ll need to buy another expensive license). So much for FREEdom.
Two problems, actually. One, if you have the install disks I don’t see why an OEM version wouldn’t work in a virtual machine. Second, he’s placing the blame on Microsoft charging an outrageous amount for their software on Ubuntu, which is just unfair and not very CLASSy.
2. The Command Line: Hard-core Linux users love the power of the command line. Tapping out commands such as “./configure –with-options and make and make install” are the essential ingredients to surviving in Linux land.
I haven’t had to use CL in over a year. I’ve chosen to, because I’m “hard core” or whatever. The holy trinity he describes (./configure, make, make install) isn’t necessary in the slightest with Ubuntu — that’s for building a program for source, something you don’t have to do very often if ever in Ubuntu. In fact, the only time I’ve had to is to install a special version of something. Usually I just fire up Synaptic and search for the name of what I want (like “email” or “chat”) and select it in a visual interface. Then I get the software, for free. Windows has nothing like this. You have to search and search for something, usually end up having to pay for it (or crack it if that’s your thing) and wonder what the hell else it’s going to install on your computer.
Not a problem with Ubuntu.
And because there’s still no standard package management system supported across Linux platforms, chances are you will run into software that is not supplied in .deb (Debian) format (think of .deb as the Ubuntu equivalent to .exe installations in Windows). Without a Debian file, you’ll need to compile that wonderful software application from source using command line structures.
I’ve never come across anything that’s distributed in .rpm that isn’t also distributed in .deb. There are basically two package types, and people usually make both. The more I’m reading this the more I’m thinking this guy either hasn’t used Ubuntu or is failing to understand it — the way he calls it a “Debian file” and all. Yes, it’s used by Debian but it just sounds awkward and not like something someone familiar with the system would say.
3. Hardware Support:
He’s flat out wrong about a lot of this, but there are some areas where hardware support is lacking. Particularly from nVidia and a lot of wireless cards (apparently — I had no trouble). Oh, and anything from Lexmark, but Lexmark printers suck anyway (and they have some of the highest refills). Samsung and Epson provide really good support, so does HP, and I believe Canon does as well. My Canon scanner worked like this: I plugged it in. The Linux drivers for my printer are better than the Windows ones.
Also, you don’t always have to use the command line to sort out drivers. Unless something goes terribly wrong, you shouldn’t have to at all. I didn’t need the command line to install the nVidia drivers for my card, and nVidia has horrible support. I’d like to know when this guy last used Ubuntu (or when his last check from Microsoft arrived), because he’s way, way off in a lot of comments.
No, hardware support isn’t perfect. But it’s a damn improvement over what it was a few years ago (or even six months ago) and getting better as the community grows. And Vista hardware support blew chunks out the door. Finally, almost every command line instruction you would need to install something from a CLI is given to you in the Ubuntu Forums — you can simply copy and paste. That assumes you need to do it.
I’m not even touching his point four about DRM. DRM is bad, mmkay? And you can’t blame Linux or Ubuntu for other companies being assholes. The RIAA and MPAA are on the record as being against the rights of consumers to enjoy entertainment they paid for on their own terms and believe that consumers owe them and are criminals if they don’t go along exactly the way the RIAA/MPAA want them to. They’ve spent billions of dollars to prop up a broken business model.
Point five is just an absurd re-stating of the previous four that sounds like he’s got about as much a clue about Ubuntu Linux as he does quantum physics. Then he throws in the laptop hard drive bug from like two years ago. He claims he ran it for a year after that, and I just don’t buy it. Unless he steadfastly refused to seek any help or attempt to learn what he was talking about. Then I might buy him claiming he ran it for a year. Oh, and claiming Ubuntu exists just for people pissed about Vista is utterly dishonest.
Now for my response: Top Five Reasons Not To Run Windows (all versions)
1. DRM — Microsoft have complied with the MPAA and RIAA in order to sneak DRM into their operating system that will, at their whim, deny you rights to enjoy the music or movies you have purchased. This is all a part of their plan to “beat piracy” that has about as much chance of working as throwing rocks at a tank has of making it explode. You see, because some people commit copyright infringement, the RIAA/MPAA believe the solution is to treat all of their customers as though they are criminals. And Microsoft agrees with them. But they’re not rolling out the DRM just yet — just like with BluRay, they’re biding their time before throwing the switch. (Seriously — Sony has a “content protection system” built into BluRay that they’ve yet to start using but will require once the adoption level is high enough.) In addition to not working to prevent piracy in any way (in fact evidence suggests it facilitates it) it will simply create an inconvenience for legitimate customers.
2. Viruses and spyware — because of the way the Microsoft system works, it is extremely easy to exploit. In order to convince a judge they had to bundle Internet Explorer with Windows, Microsoft built the engine into their kernel. So any exploit in Internet Explorer has full access to your system. They’ve improved it somewhat since, but their security is still close to nil. In addition, they don’t provide a true permission based file-system, which allows anyone with time a chance at owning your box or mucking about with system files. You cannot do that in Linux unless you have root access, and it’s very hard to find an exploit that will allow you root access. Even then, someone would have to intentionally open their box up for external SSH or give you direct, physical access. Note that there are no programs like AdAware, CWS Shredder, or Spybot for Linux.
This is because they’re not necessary. Security is built into Linux. So all those vacation pictures you took? The ones of you naked with a bunny hat? A simple exploit could cause those to get spread to the internet, far and wide. The best “solution” to this is the annoying “Cancel or Allow” dialog in Windows Vista. That’s right, after over a decade of knowing they have giant security holes that allow a remote user to completely destroy your system the best fix a billion dollar company could come up with was annoying you when you want to run an application.
3. Cost – Even if you get Windows with your computer (or pirate it), you’re going to run into an enormous amount of cost. In addition to paying for Windows, you’re going to have to pay hundreds of dollars for software that you could get for free with Linux (and install easier through Synaptic than through Windows). Or you could pirate them — which makes you a criminal and the fines for copyright infringement are even more expensive than the software would be in the first place. While the author of the post I’m disputing cites Gimp as not being comparable to Photoshop, let’s be honest, Photoshop is hundreds of dollars to obtain legally and Gimp is free. So your choice becomes: Pay up or break the law.
And Microsoft is working hard on DRM and other means to make sure you don’t take that second choice. Harder there than on security. Because it’s important that they get your money even if your system doesn’t work.
4. Freedom — have you ever read the Windows user agreement? I sure haven’t. It’s pretty strict. I’ve read the GPL though, and it’s not. In fact, most free software licenses put no onus on the user at all. They only apply when you want to distribute the software! You can use it however you like so long as you don’t give it away, and then you can give it away as long as you also give away the source code (and unless you modify the code all you have to do is point the person to the source you got it from). Try distributing Windows or Windows programs and see how fast the FBI shows up at your door. In addition, in big capital letters, the Microsoft agreement shouts that there is NO WARRANTY for the software you just paid for. Most of the software you pay for says the same thing in Windows. Even some of the tax programs have no warranty — if they screw up your taxes and you get in trouble, hey, check the agreement pal!
Yeah, there’s no warranty for free software, either. But you don’t have to pay for it, and you can do whatever you want with it. You can install Ubuntu on a million computers and face no consequences (if they’re your computers). All from the same install disc. Which the Ubuntu company will send to you for free. Ask Microsoft for a free install disc. Go ahead.
5. Windows just works – unless it doesn’t. I’ll refer you to Windows ME, Windows Vista, and Windows XP before SP1 came out. I’ll point out the various driver issues, I’ll point out all the spyware, and DRM, and everything else I already said.
Note: I have Windows XP installed but don’t boot to it more than once every few months, and the last time I did, I did so in order to be sure I’d copied everything I wanted from Windows since I don’t use it and didn’t want to forget to back up anything I left there and didn’t copy here. I’ve been using Linux in one form or another for two and a half years as of June 11th or so as my primary OS — I used Slackware from January 11th 2006 or so until mid-August 2006, and then installed Ubuntu 6.06, and I’ve used 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, and 8.04. My desktop currently runs 8.04 and my laptop runs 7.10 because I’m lazy — but I installed 7.10 over Vista. I only skipped Ubuntu 6.10 because I am lazy and didn’t think I needed a “new” OS yet.
